With one of the top young offensive lines in the country, the Texas A&M football staff must work to maintain the talent and depth to remain at the top of that category for years to come. That included reloading each year with some of the top talent in the state through recruiting. The Aggie's staff has put together another highly ranked class of offensive linemen in the 2012 class including Aledo's Michael Wilson who is ranked as the 52 offensive tackle in the country by Rivals. Aledo is one of the top ranked teams in the state again just a year removed from winning the 4A state title. Despite the target on their backs each week Wilson is happy with the teams play so far.

"We have been very efficient so far," said the 6-foot-6, 265 pound tackle. "The offense has been good, the defense has been good and of course Jonathan (Gray) has been good."

There was a lot of hype surrounding the team coming into the season as the defending champions with their best weapon in Gray returning. Right out of the gates the team lost a close game to Stephenville. The team went on to lose their third game as well to state power Lake Travis putting them at a 1-2 record to start the defense of their title.

"We are trying to take it one game at a time right now," said Wilson. "We got a little bit ahead of our selves earlier in the year and that didn't work out too well for us so we are taking it one at a time right now. To be honest we had a very big head going into the season and the early losses in the season brought us back down to earth some."

Unlike the skill position players, offensive linemen can't open the newspaper to find out what their stat sheet looks like for the season. The Aledo staff does a good job of keeping the big guys up to date on how they have been performing though.

"Our coaches have us graded every Wednesday for the previous week's game and I have been doing pretty well this year," said Wilson. "Hopefully it keeps going like that, I want to finish the year with a high grade."

Teammate Jonathan Gray burst onto the scene during the teams title run last season, putting an exclamation point on his season with a record breaking performance in the title game. The Longhorn commit is currently ranked as the top back in the nation and Wilson raves about the type of player his teammate is.

"It has been great blocking for Jonathan," he said. "He is real humble and sets a good example. The first place he goes after he scores is to the offensive line and he will tell us we did a good job and reminds us that he couldn't do it without us and stuff. He is a really good guy and I have enjoyed blocking for him."

Wilson also admits that having Gray in the backfield can be both good and bad at times.

"Having a back like that back there makes my job easy at time but also makes it tough at times as well," said the massive tackle. "Everybody expects 300 yards plus of rushing yards from us each game so there is some pressure there at times, but we can handle it. It is easy blocking for him though. When you have to get out and block a linebacker you know you only have to seal him off for a couple seconds and Jonathan is already by you."

Wilson has only been able to attend one of the Aggie's games in person this season but he has watched all of them and even sees some similarities that his team and the Aggies have both struggled with.

"I've watched every one of their games so far this season," he said. "I made it to College Station for the Oklahoma State game earlier in the year but I have seen every game. I think early in the year they had a hard time coming out for the second half of games especially after they got up big. That is something we have to work on up here as well, we have to focus coming out of the locker room at the half like it is coming out for the start of the game again. Other than that though, they have had a pretty good season. They have faced a lot of good teams and even the losses have been very close games."

Wilson and Aledo face off with Azle Friday night at home and seem to be hitting their stride as they gear up for another playoff run. They have won their last contest by a combined score of 268-75 since the loss to Lake Travis.